30 beautiful mobile apps for design enthusiasts

With an ever-growing supply of mobile apps, it takes a lot to stand out from the crowd—both in functionality and design. With that in mind, we sloshed through app stores to handpick 30 beautiful mobile apps that designers and design enthusiasts will love.

We’ve organized this article into seven sections, so you can easily find the mobile app that fits your needs best. It’s time to turn your phone into your own little robotic personal assistant! Let’s begin.

1. Planning apps
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Download these mobile apps if you need help planning your day, your week, your year or your design life.

Rise

What is it?Rise is a gorgeous, minimally designed alarm clock to get your creative day started. Use it as a digital clock, customize alarm sounds and create a “SleepTunes” playlist to drift off to sleep with.Price: $1.99Download: iOS

Evernote

What is it?Evernote is a personal planning app that allows you to create to-do lists, snap photo reminders, clip online articles and share your projects seamlessly across all your devices.Price: Free (Basic plan)Download: iOS, Google Play

TeuxDeux

What is it?TeuxDeux helps you keep a simple day-to-day list of your design and personal tasks.Price: FreeDownload: iOS

Google Keep

What is it?Google Keep is a to-do list on steroids. Keep all of your ideas, notes, photos and lists in the same colorful place. The mobile app lets you sync across all devices and also offers a Chrome extension, so you always have your reminders close at hand.Price: FreeDownload: iOS, Android

Mint

What is it?Mint lets you keep an eye on your earnings in a fully visual way. Set up budgets, see the breakdown in where you spend your money and receive recommendations on how to save more money.Price: FreeDownload: iOS, Android

Wunderlist

What is it?Wunderlist makes it easy to assign to-dos, set reminders and collaborate on projects.Price: FreeDownload: iOS, Android

2. Curation apps
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Looking for a way to stay more organized? These mobile apps will help you keep interesting online content organized and accessible.

Feedly

What is it?Feedly is an RSS feeder, but much prettier and more organized than most. You can easily organize the content that interests you, comment and integrate it with other apps including Evernote, Slack and Trello.Price: FreeDownload: iOS and Android

3. Creative & experimental apps
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What is it?Visualator is Computer Art’s dedication to the collage. Create vibrant abstractions out of colors, shapes and patterns.Price: FreeDownload: iOS

Bloom

What is it? Created by Brian Eno and software designer Peter Chilvers, Bloom plays with sound and generative art to allow the user to create limitless patterns and compositions that evolve when left idle.Price: $3.99Download: iOS

SKTCH

What is it? Who said digital sketching has to be all brush-based? Not the creators of SKTCH, who created a generative drawing tool using presets made by a global network of digital artists.Price: $1.99Download: iOS

asdfbmp

What is it? asdfbmp is a pixel art generator based on the retro bitmap style.Price: $1.99Download: iOS

4. Design games
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The best way to learn is to do it in an entertaining way. Challenge yourself with these design-centric learning games!

The Font Game

What is it?The Font Game tests your font knowledge by having you identify 30 fonts while shooting for a high score.Price: $1.99Download: iOS

7. Social sharing apps
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Pushbullet

What is it? Need a way to easily share files? Pushbullet syncs between your browser and devices to easily send links, files and messages to friends and your devices all at once.Price: FreeDownload: iOS and Android

Cinamatic

What is it?Cinamatic lets you create short films, apply retro filters and easily share to Instagram, Vine and Facebook.Price:$1.99Download: iOS

Static

What is it? Measure your social media effectiveness with Static.Price: $1.99Download: iOS

Path

What is it?Path is a social networking app that allows you to share information 1-to-1, or post to all of your social media outlets at once.Price: FreeDownload: iOS

Share your favorite mobile apps in the comments!

The author

Kaitlyn is part of the Community Team at 99designs.com. She grew up in Boulder, CO and went to school at Northwestern University in Chicago. When she's not blogging, she spends her time having adventures and being generally creative. She's all about having new experiences as often as possible!